The State of the Horde – A Layman’s View

The Horde through Cataclysm has been stretched to the breaking point. In my opinion, it’s only a testament to the threat that is Deathwing that they are still together. Lets step through each of the races and I’ll explain why.

The orcs are the best off of the races. The introduction of Garrosh for them is a return to the Warchiefs of old. The orcs love battle and conquering and for them Garrosh’s expansion and aggression fit right in. The one issue that the orcs currently have is that Garrosh is ill suited to the positions of Warchief. While he makes a great general and leader, he has little patience for the politics that come with running a nation. This of course also extends to his interactions with other races. Garrosh also doesn’t handle being questioned in his decisions or criticized well as evident in his interactions with Vol’jin and Cairne Bloodhoof. Garrosh has also spread his elite forces a little thin as he now must keep an eye on a revitalized Sylvanas and the Forsaken.

Sylvanas begins the expansion with a new enemy on her door step and a problem that must be solved on how to continue to grow her race. Sylvanas has taken care of the latter problem by recruiting the Val’kyr and using them to create new forsaken by resurrecting the fallen of her enemies. This ends up being most fortuitous as three of the Val’kyr sacrifice themselves to bring her back to life after she is killed by Lord Godfrey and his minions. Garrosh is using the forsaken to establish a major foothold in Eastern Kingdoms with Sylvanas controlling it under his watchful eye. Sylvanas and the forsaken army have already wiped out Gilneas and South Shore; established major operations to wipe out the remaining scourge and push out the alliance from the plaguelands; and pushed into the Arathi Highlands and the Hinterlands looking to gain more ground for the forsaken. Sylvanas has used the opportunity to refocus her wrath and ensure a safe buffer zone around Lorderan to protect her forsaken. She has also shown she is not above any means necessary to accomplish her goals, so much so that Garrosh has assigned one of his generals to keep an eye on her and report back with everything she does. Even with this, Sylvanas and the forsaken are happy with their place in the horde.

Of all the non-orc races the Tauren have the most reason to be upset with Garrosh. The duel between Garrosh and Cairne cost them a beloved leader. Garrosh’s incursions into Ashenvale has indirectly caused the destruction of Camp Taurajo. Surprisingly though, the Tauren still tie their fate to that of the horde. Baine and the rest of the Tauren feel that they still owe the Horde for saving them and helping them establish a homeland. Additionally, they know where the responsibility for Cairne’s death lies, squarely on the shoulders of Magatha and her tribe of Grimtotems. The Tauren did not even ask for help in reclaiming Thunderbluff, the responsibility for that was entirely on the Tauren. The Tauren’s honor firmly entrenches them with the Horde.

Anyone who has played through the troll starting area since the beginning of Cataclysm knows exactly how Vol’jin feels about Garrosh. Tensions between the orcs and trolls have never been higher. Things have gotten so bad that Garrosh has actually banished the Trolls away from central Orgrimarr. I think the only reason that tensions haven’t been higher is that the Darkspear have been busy dealing with the Zandalari menace in both Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub. I expect tensions will get worse between the Trolls and the Orcs as Vol’jin has zero respect for Garrosh.

The last and by the opinion of the rest of the races the least of the races, is the Goblins. The Goblins are currently led by Trade Prince Gallywix. The Goblins are part of the Horde because they saved Thrall from the Alliance. Garrosh tolerates them barely. He likes there capability to build him war machines, but he doesn’t like them as a whole and as such as relegated them to their own slum away from central Orgrimarr. Even for the mistreatment, the Goblins aren’t going anywhere, the Horde protects them and provides them a good profit source and as such, provide all the Goblins need and want.

The Horde through all it’s stretches and strains has remained mostly strong through Cataclysm, but the cracks are there. For now though, the future looks bright for the Horde.

Well I did not know sylvannas dies if the valkyr die, the short story for her was terrible and I only read half of it, so dull and boring.I don’t really understand why blizz took the approach of scourge 2.0 for the forsaken, it makes factions like the blood elves and argent dawn unlikely to be happy with the forsakens actions and I do not see why the orcs even bother trying to watch the forsakens actions when they just get pushed over to the side anyway. Why add a lore plot when it’s not going to be used properly? or actively at the least?Also I doubt the forsaken are the most numerous race of the horde, orcs seemingly pop up everywhere like a pest infestation but if we ignore these ingame mechanics then the forsaken would also have been very low on numbers by the time they got the valkyr and with getting them their actions are watched very closely and I doubt Garrosh will let the forsaken out number the orcs due to sylvanas’s behaviour and her traitorous ways.